Reply by Sawkerf

Learning -

If you’re painting the desk, you’ll want to stay away from oak. Its grain will show thru the paint unless you go theu a very labor intensive effort to fill the pores and sand everything smooth. Way more trouble than its worth.

For paint grade work, I use either poplar or shop grade maple. Both work well and take paint well. Personally, I won’t use big box ply on anything that has to look good. It’s just too much hassle dealing with it.

-- Adversity doesn't build character...................it reveals it.